From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

'Huh?'

He paused for a moment before realizing something was wrong—this charge was serious enough to land him in Azkaban… Why was he getting involved?

That's not right either...

As if remembering something, he paid for the meal, then went out and went straight to a bookstore, where he bought a local law book about magical ruins at a 40% discount…

A week later, William looked up from the tree, completely devastated…

'That's outrageous...'

Among humans, shepherds are the most sedentary. Others make a living by hunting, some by raiding, some who live by lakes, rivers, swamps, or the sea are suited to fishing, and others make a living by hunting birds and animals...

Based on the above, human lifestyles can be broadly categorized into five distinct modes: nomadic, agricultural, raiding, fishing, and hunting.

He said something was wrong—a crime serious enough to land you in wizarding jail was being spoken so openly, and the speaker wasn't worried about any punishment whatsoever… It was outrageous, utterly outrageous…

One hundred gallons can buy a one-year excavation certificate—the proper kind—that legally allows you to excavate unoccupied magical sites within Greece… as long as they aren't occupied or explicitly marked as belonging to the ancestors of a particular magical family…

But that's not the most outrageous part. According to other materials he'd consulted and information he'd gathered during this time, the Greek magical community had never classified piracy as illegal...

"I'm so...naive...So Azkaban is just the beginning..."

William held the books and documents, speechless for a moment—he now understood what it meant to be completely unfamiliar with a field, and how foolish he had been to think he wouldn't gain much in Greece…

"Piracy is out of the question, but legal excavation is still possible—most of the magical ruins on the mainland have been occupied, but like those guys said, excavation on the islands is still feasible..."

"It's a bit extravagant... We need to control the dosage if we use FLOPS..."

After placing the book on the table, William noticed something amiss—why was he digging?

Does he have any pirate treasure maps?

not at all.

Does he have any innovative detection techniques?

not at all.

He was so lucky that he discovered a piece of land that no one had ever seen before and confirmed that there was something underneath.

not at all.

He has nothing—he has nothing that he's better at than people who do it professionally, so why doesn't he just dig bird droppings on an island?

"As expected, the new discovery is still just as useless..."

"but…"

William glanced at the book on the table and fell into thought; he seemed to have a good idea.

-

The excavation permit office was already packed with long queues – in an effort to generate revenue, the Greek Ministry of Magic had even introduced a family package, which, although only available to families during summer and winter breaks, was significantly cheaper, hence the long lines these days.

Even a seasoned treasure hunter like Gul had to queue up to replace that damned document. He'd lost it during his previous adventure, and if that got out, it'd cost him a huge sum of Galleons…

"How long will the wait be?"

He sighed, passing the time by watching the others—there were no thieves here; the enforcers were extremely wary of the area's resources, so there was no room for stealth or fraud. Even if a commotion broke out, someone would quickly come and resolve it…

"Welcome, welcome!"

A very loud shout rang out, and the batters' enthusiasm made Gul's gaze involuntarily focus on them—he found it hard to imagine that batters would greet people so warmly. Paying to cut in line was one thing, but this level of enthusiasm was another.

"How can she be so young?"

Gul wondered—whose important person's child is playing adventure games here?

'This is treating adventure like child's play...'

He thought dismissively, but then he noticed that the people queuing nearby were pointing and whispering about the person who had been ushered in by the batter.

"That's him?"

"Yes, that's the one... So young, yet so knowledgeable that even students and professors from other schools find it unbelievable..."

"That's right, I heard that Durmstrang uses exam papers designed by them..."

The conversation of a group of amateur wizarding families left Gul bewildered. Being naturally outgoing, he didn't hesitate to interject, "Who is that?"

"The famous Defense Against the Dark Arts master—it seems they've changed the name to Self-Defense in England…a strange pronunciation…that’s the one, the Hogwarts professor, very famous."

"Professor? So young?"

"Truly talented—his student just won the three-way championship, and professors and students from other schools all think that professor is very capable!"

The Triwizard Tournament is one of the top competitions in Europe, and Gul had heard of it before, so now they've connected.

"Wow, that's impressive! This professor is so young! Who's he here for?"

Gul was startled—they didn't have the three major magic schools in Europe, only a few smaller magic schools of slightly lower quality and correspondence courses that used textbooks from other schools.

Hogwarts rarely accepts students from outside the British wizarding world, so the other two magic schools are considered top-tier educations for wizards here. Hogwarts' own words are less convincing, but if the other two schools acknowledge that this professor is excellent, then he certainly won't have any doubts.

"I heard there are many magical ruins around here, and we've encountered many types of curses and ancient spells, so I came to investigate." The wizard who was being spoken to said with pride, "The Ministry of Magic originally intended to have the professor take over a major excavation project, but the professor said there wasn't enough research in this area, and besides, the summer break was too short, so he only took on a simple one..."

"That's a bit too modest... If Durmstrang approves, who else would have a problem with it?"

"Exactly... They even avoid participating in those activities with high confidentiality requirements and have to sign confidentiality agreements... I don't know how much time that will waste... Our correspondence course textbooks have been in use for so long, don't those rigid minds in the Ministry of Magic make any demands on this?"

His complaints resonated with many people—they've been saying for years that correspondence course textbooks are no good; even Durmstrang can copy them, so why can't you think of a way to get this professor to write a set of correspondence course textbooks or something?

So much money collected from issuing certificates is all gone, isn't it?

-

"Your certificate, Professor William, along with the confidentiality agreement and the requirement of two research reports within three years... these don't need to be so strict... one will suffice. If there are no further questions, you can sign them."

"If you have any other needs, please feel free to let me know—also, there's a banquet tonight, and if possible, I hope you could prepare a speech... Of course, you can cancel if you don't really like it."

"Another thing is..."

Chapter 503: Not a single one of them is reliable.

"Slughorn? I seem to remember him..."

After Sirius and Harry discussed the trip, Sirius thought for a while before remembering this person.

"He's a potions master, and he's quite attentive in class, but I don't have a very good impression of him."

"He is a very capable professor with a wide network of connections and a willingness to help students—but only those he likes."

Because so much time had passed, Sirius could only retrieve information about the professor from his memory: "He was extremely picky about his students. Although he didn't have as much of the blood prejudice that Slytherin graduates possessed, he was, how should I put it, a bit mercenary. Once a student had no value in his eyes, it was truly equivalent to being completely abandoned."

"You mean he likes power?"

Harry began to understand based on Sirius's explanation.

"No, no, no, he has no interest in power—he's the kind of professor who likes geniuses, or you can be connected to geniuses, he's always tirelessly collecting talented people, that's completely different."

Sirius Black tossed Harry a bag of chips as he spoke, “It’s just that usually, talented people become powerful in their respective fields, making him seem somewhat power-hungry, but in reality, he has very little desire for money and power—given his network of connections, if he wanted to go into politics, he would practically be Minister for Magic, and if he wanted to get rich, he would have already filled his vaults with countless Galleons.”

"I still don't quite understand..."

Harry is really confused now—it's too contradictory.

“Let me put it this way,” Sirius sighed, having only recently come to this realization, “the top figures in almost every industry across Britain have been to his club, and even many of the students in the Ministry of Magic who have already reached the middle ranks are mostly members of his club. Add to that his position as Head of Slytherin… guess how many people he can find if he wants to get something done?”

"What are you two talking about again?"

Lupin approached, his eyes filled with doubt and unease—the full moon was approaching again, and he would have to take the potion and fall asleep once more. However, what had happened during his last slumber made it impossible for him to spend the full moon peacefully as before.

“We were just talking about Slughorn. You remember the headmaster of Slytherin, right? He's Harry's new professor next year, barring any unforeseen circumstances.”

"Is that right?"

Lupin's eyes held a hint of suspicion. He glanced at Harry, then thought for a moment with a touch of unease, "Is he the new professor?"

"Hmm, Dumbledore took you there to persuade him, which makes sense. But Professor Snape was teaching so well, why did he stop?"

"Who knows, maybe Old Snotty got fired."

Sirius's words were as blunt as ever.

“How could that be? Hogwarts has never had a headmaster dismissed before—” Lupin shook his head and retorted. “Well, maybe Dumbledore is worried that Harry’s grades won’t be good enough if Snape teaches the fifth year again…”

"Not enough points?"

Harry and Sirius both looked at Lupin.

"Yes, grades. As you know, Aurors require a lot of certificates, and it's very difficult for Harry to get the highest grade in Potions. Snape might just cut off the grade requirements for the Advanced Class to stop Harry from getting the highest grade."

With a former Auror in the same office, Lupin was particularly clear about the Auror's recruitment criteria.

"That's the kind of disgusting thing a snotty-nosed person would do... but why would Harry be an Auror?"

Sirius Black never forgets to mention Snape before asking any questions.

“Huh? When we were chatting in the office, Professor William said that Harry’s best option was to become an Auror—he has a very strong talent for combat.”

“Yes, yes, the professor and I talked to each other—” Harry nodded in affirmation of Lupin’s words, but with a forced smile on his face, “The professor said that I am very talented in Quidditch, but as an Auror, my teammates are all powerful wizards. If we have to deal with Voldemort, we can all go together, without having to think about the silly thing of having to duel him one-on-one.”

"That's true. If we can all fight together, there's really no need to duel him one-on-one."

Sirius chuckled and put his arm around Harry's shoulder, which finally made Harry laugh, no longer worried about revealing the exact words he had heard back then.

[Aurors are powerful, and there are so many of them! Let's all attack together. Don't always think about wizard duels. If you were an Auror now, you could lead a group of Aurors to smash Black's head. Similarly, if you were an Auror in the future, you could lead a group of people to smash the Dark Lord's head.]

“Then it’s settled. It’s definitely safer to have a group of Aurors with us. After all, even someone like Umbridge is a Death Eater. Having a group of reliable teammates is a good choice.”

His ability to quickly change the subject made Lupin fall silent for a moment, before he shook his head, smiled, and went to drink his potion.

'Hopefully, when they wake up this time, they'll still be obediently engaging in Animagus transformations—though that would be ridiculous enough…'

Lupin pinched his nose and drank the potion, then returned to the room specially prepared for his transformation. He locked the door with magic and instructed Sirius to lock it from the outside before lying down on the bed, waiting for night to fall.

-

"The ceiling is still there."

When Lupin woke up, his first priority was to check the safety of the house before he began to inspect the surrounding protective magic in case the medicine was not effective.

"Safe, not triggered—another full moon has passed."

He sighed and then began to groom the stray hairs around him—although his hair was still very healthy and he didn't have to worry about going bald, grooming his hair in the morning was never a pleasant experience.